A bit about S.M.A.R.T. Status

A bit about S.M.A.R.T. Status

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Reading Time: 7 minutes Part of a conversation between me and my neighbor this week: Me: “Sounds like the drive is failing, have you checked the S.M.A.R.T. Status?” Him: “What’s that?” Being a geek and neck deep in various tech projects every day for the last two decades it’s sometimes easy to forget there are people out there that may have never heard of something I take for granted. Sure, readers of this blog are probably pretty in touch with their inner geek but…

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Check your backups!

Check your backups!

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Yes, you’ve heard me say this plenty of times if you know me. I keep repeating it because it’s THAT important! Today I was going through my ridiculously, insanely large stash of backup discs to check for disc rot (we’re talking optical media here) and data integrity. This is something I try to do twice a year but usually end up doing just once a year because it takes up a few days time. What does this process entail? •…

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The differences between the 4,1 and 5,1 Mac Pro

The differences between the 4,1 and 5,1 Mac Pro

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Reading Time: 6 minutes My apologies, sometimes I take certain information for granted. When I see people on facebook and other forums ask “what’s the difference between 4,1 and 5,1 Mac Pro?” or “Can I use a 4,1 CPU tray in a 5,1 Mac Pro” I think to myself ‘this is common knowledge, isn’t it?’. No, it’s not. Even in 2020 (and years to come) there will be plenty of people that first get started on upgrading an older Mac Pro or maybe even…

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Power Macintosh G3 poster restoration – grab it!

Power Macintosh G3 poster restoration – grab it!

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Reading Time: 2 minutes While rummaging through old Apple Resource CD’s I found a really cool poster from Apple (pdf). Unfortunately the image is looking absolutely terrible! Here’s a screenshot of the original PDF and a detail 100% zoom shot: And at 100%: The text is crisp but the image is garbage! And this is on Apple’s official, original, marketing materials CD from 1999! So I started restoring it. I have some high quality photography from other sales and marketing discs and found the…

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Contour vertical mouse review – 2 years later

Contour vertical mouse review – 2 years later

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Reading Time: 4 minutes In January 2018 I made the switch to a vertical mouse. I was not suffering from carpal tunnel or other issues but did feel a strain on my lower arm after long computer sessions. There is plenty of information out there explaining how a vertical mouse is better for you so I won’t bore you with all of that. It’s a much more natural position for your arm as this image illustrates perfectly: Poor spelling aside, this about sums it…

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Things to do during isolation

Things to do during isolation

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Reading Time: 4 minutes The world is losing it’s marbles with the corona virus going around so a lot of us find ourselves isolated at home. While this is certainly a good time to clean your home, I want to talk a bit about things you can do that you’ve probably been putting off (Mac related). Test your backups You use Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, ChronoSync and/or other ways to back up your data. This is great but do you know if those…

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Tools I use – CleanMyMac & The Unarchiver

Tools I use – CleanMyMac & The Unarchiver

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Reading Time: 3 minutes I have bundled these two apps together as they are from the same developer. They do very different thing though. CleanMyMac – Contrary to popular belief, this is not malware, scareware or any other maliciousware. People have gotten MacKeeper and CleanMyMac confused so many times over the years that they now both have a bad rep. CleanMyMac is solid and reliable software and the developer/company (MacPaw) has never done anything shady that I am aware of. Furthermore, CleanMyMac is notarized…

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Yes, you can use a PowerPC in 2020 (or any other year)

Yes, you can use a PowerPC in 2020 (or any other year)

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Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s that time again. PowerPC (PPC) is being slammed by the unknowing. If I had the time I’d make a response video, like Greg Hrutkay has, and set the record straight on a few things. Sadly, I do not have the time to shoot and edit such a video so I’ll write this article instead. Now I won’t start hating on this guy. I don’t know him or his channel so I won’t judge him for being terribly misinformed. Why…

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It’s time for the 2020 PPC Challenge!

It’s time for the 2020 PPC Challenge!

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Reading Time: 3 minutes The PPC Challenge has been around for a while. I don’t know who started it or where but I’ve been participating for at least 5 years. The goal is simple; For one week, use a PPC Mac for as much as your daily computing as possible. Last year I used a 17″ 800MHz G4 iMac and I got a remarkable amount of my daily computing done on it. Updating and maintaining my websites with Photoshop 6 and Dreamweaver MX, AppleWorks…

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Power Mac G4 MDD Power Supply capacitor list (Samsung 360W)

Power Mac G4 MDD Power Supply capacitor list (Samsung 360W)

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Reading Time: 3 minutes This project is a work in progress but I thought I’d share what I have so far. I finally set out to map the capacitors in an MDD PSU so that we can see about recapping it. Currently on my desk is a Samsung PSCF401601B(C) Rev: A & Rev: B 360W power supply. This came from a FW800 MDD and is a revised model, Apple shipped the first MDD’s with a 400W power supply that ran hot and was super…

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